1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer having a processing device capable of processing a predetermined location on a printed sheet, a driver program, a print system, a printing method, and a processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printer which uses a roll sheet for a sheet of paper used for printing is known. The operation of printing on the roll sheet is continuously performed, and the resultant or printed sheet is long and consists of a succession of printed areas. Accordingly, the printed roll sheet must be cut at predetermined positions.
A printer which, at the completion of the printing operation, feeds a printed roll sheet to a position where a person can cut the final end position of the print, is known. The printer judges the final end position of the print on the basis of layout data (e.g., page length, top margin, bottom margin, etc.,) of a page, which is preset by a user, and drives the paper feed motor to feed the roll sheet to a position where a prestored person readily cuts the roll sheet at the final end position of the print. In this case, the final cutting of the roll sheet is manually performed, and a further cutting of the sheet having cut at the final end position into smaller parts is also manually performed.
The printing head prints while the carriage with the printing head mounted thereon reciprocatively moves in the main scan direction. A printer in which the carriage is provided with the cutter, and the sheet is cut when the carriage is moved, is also known. This type of printing device also cuts the roll sheet at the final end position of print after the completion of the printing operation.
The conventional printer is able to cut the roll sheet at the final end position of the final page printed on the sheet. Manual work must be used to further cut a long sheet having several pages printed thereon into smaller parts of those pages, however. An alternative measure to be taken for effecting such a cutting is to set up successive steps of cutting process by locating a cutting device in an upstream step of the printer. In this case, the user must install equipment, e.g., cutting device, additionally.
A request of another process, e.g., a folding process, also exists, in addition to the cutting process. Decorative paper to be set in a case of a music CD, MD. floppy disc, is inserted into the case, while folded. Accordingly, in printing on this type of decorative paper, it is efficient to fold the paper during the printing process. It is a common practice to use devices additionally prepared for those process steps.
If the printing operation is interrupted for the execution of the cutting or folding process, print quality deterioration occurs since a stripe will be formed at the interrupted location. To avoid this, it is required that a time taken for the interruption of the printing operation for processing the printed sheet is as short as possible. In the work of making the printed sheet run back and then processing the printed sheet, the printed sheet sometimes is rubbed with something, possibly deteriorating the quality of the print image on the printed sheet.
In automatizing the processing of the printed sheet, it is necessary to set a position on the sheet to which the sheet processing is to be applied, or a processing position on the printed sheet. So far as we know, there is neither the printer capable of setting the processing position on the printed sheet for each print unit nor the host computer for sending data to the printer, which has such a setting function.